The TV spots were so very misleading. The opener for the show is Halloween, with Dwight, Kevin and Creed (as creepy as Heath Ledger) all dressed as the joker. Pam is dressed as Charlie Chaplin at the corporate office, but no one at corporate dresses up for Halloween. Uncomfortably delivering faxes with a greasepaint mustache, she can’t even remove her hat because she’d resemble Hitler too much.
The fun comes to an abrupt end when we find out that Dunder Mifflin has decided to transfer Holly back to the New Hampshire branch after David Wallace found she and Michael were dating. Using a Dunder Mifflin truck, Darryl drives them the seven hours to her new home. “Life is a Highway” is played several, several times.
A quick cut back to the office has Dwight telling Andy that he’s applied to Cornell, sporting an obscene amount of Cornell paraphernalia. His love for Angela is manifesting itself in more perverse ways. It’s fun, and the only laugh out loud subplot, but it was really sad to see a possible Halloween episode squandered.
Meanwhile, Jim leaves to New York to meet Pam and his two brothers Pete and Tom for lunch. Pam meets them early to plan a prank on Jim, but finds herself the butt of their own prank which consists mostly of berating her art career.
“Cornell is an excellent school. Without its agricultural program we probably wouldn’t have cabbage.”
Holly suddenly breaks down crying during the roadtrip.
“Are you crying? Allergies? Did Darryl touch you?”
She’s decided that a long distance relationship could not work. Seven hours is too far, and even weekend visits would not leave them much time together.
“Holly thinks that this relationship is over. I’m not going to give up that easy. I’m going to make this way harder than it needs to be.” Michael later breaks down and begs Holly to stay, making Darryl extremely uncomfortable.
The episode cuts between these three storylines, leaving no room whatsover for the minor characters to shine. Tom and Pete insult Pam in front of Jim, later claiming it to have been a prank masterminded by Pam herself. She plays along to avoid conflict, which I found a little weak of her.
“How about at Thanksgiving we prank Tom about being bald?”
Andy tells Dwight that he’s going to be conducting the entrance interview for Cornell, which leads to the most hilarious portion of the episode.
“I would say he has none percent chance.”
Dwight counter-interviews Andy as he has volunteered to evaluate Cornell’s entrance interviewers. Great exchange between the two involving the table between them being shoved back and forth.
While Michael had originally planned to stay the weekend at New Hampshire, he decides at the last minute to leave with Darryl, reluctantly saying goodbye to Holly. This is possible Michael’s most mature moment in the entire series so far. For me, the highlight of the episode was Michael not even looking back at Holly as they drive away.
The episode closes with Andy coming into the office “dressed casual,” as a farmer with a crate of beets.
I expected a bit more from director Stephen Merchant, but I felt the weaknesses of the last couple of episodes has been in the writing. It’s sad to see Holly go so soon, it was kind of disappointing to see the Halloween opening not used for the rest of the episode, and while the Andy/Dwight subplot was amusing, the drama once again overshadowed the comedy. Let’s hope it picks up where “Business Ethics” left off.
Mike Trevino is a rabid fan of House and The Office and blogs out of San Antonio, TX.
